Number #12 on my 30 Things by Thirty list is Recreate and perfect the Turkish breakfast smoothie.
Well, let me explain.
This past summer we visited the beautiful country of Turkey. We started in Istanbul and drove down the western coast, ducking in to Aphrodisias and Pamukkale and ending on the southern side of the country in Dalyan. The country is amazing and we highly recommened it to everyone who asks. The untouched history there is absolutely unbelievable! However, it on our last stop of the trip, Dalyan, where we fell in love with Turkey. A quaint little beach town on the Dalyan river, with access to sulphur springs, natural mud baths, amazing historical tombs and Iztuzu beach. After being in the big cities and tourist areas we loved the laid back style and hospitable people.
Our first morning we stumbled on a breakfast shop called Lina's, down by the docks. It was early and already swelteringly hot, so we both quickly spotted the breakfast smoothie on the menu. After reading the brief description we were sold and both ordered the largest size they offered. After listening to the owner blend them up in the back, they were on our table and we both instantly fell in love with them. Needless to say, every morning after, we were back at Lina's for our breakfast smoothie. It didn't take long for one of us to say "we should make these at home" and so the journey began. We did our best to remember the description from the menu and as soon as we returned home we started the quest.
Every morning Alan would make smoothies and every morning we would discuss how close we thought it was and what we thought was different. After a while we settled on what we figured was close enough and then I had an idea. See when we are preparing for a trip I am glued to a website called TripAdvisor. I love it and really believe that talking to those who frequently visit or even live where you are visiting is the best resource you can have when planning. So, considering the number of people I had met on the site when preparing for Turkey I turned to them for help with our mystery. Sure enough someone on the site was preparing to visit Turkey for their 5th time and knew of Lina's shop. To make a long story short, my TripAdvisor friend visited Dalyan, had a wonderful, visited Lina's, talked to Lina herself, and brought me the entire ingredient list from the cafe! I was so excited!
Lina wasn't willing to part with the actual amounts of each ingredient in the smoothie, so that was still up to us to figure out but at least we had the ingredients, which it turns out we had most of them correct. So, now we've come up with our version of the Turkish breakfast smoothie! When Alan is home (which is close to never!) he makes them for us before we head to work. They are delicious, healthy and a great cool breakfast for our hot southern summers!
In case you want to make your own, here is the ingredient list. We'll let you decide on your own quantities as well!
- Greek yogurt (we like Fage Total 0%)
- lemon juice
- honey
- oatmeal
- banana
- orange
- apple
Sometimes we also add strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, just depending on what we have on hand. Also, we don't put the oatmeal in until the very end so it stays on larger pieces - more like the texture we had in Dalyan!
Enjoy!
1 comment:
mmm yum!! it's still breakfast time here... oh wait.. its lunch!! i can totally go for a pizza now haha!!!
thanks for entering my giveaway!!
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